Barefoot running-Marathon Jesus

Hallelujah!   I wish I'd found this one sooner....

Not only did this Japanese man run a marathon barefoot, but also ran carrying a cross and wearing a thorny crown and was dressed as, you guessed it-Jesus.

Known now as "Marathon Jesus," Makoto Takeuchi of Chiba, Japan ran the NYC Marathon last November 3 for our sins and in memory of the Boston Marathon bombing victims of last April.

Amen!



Read more in the Huffington Post on NYC Marathon Jesus.

"Jesus" more recently ran the Tokyo Marathon in February, the Japanese paper Rocket News reports. Check it out by clicking here

Barefoot Fitness-Where Do I Start?

Barefoot Fitness continues to grow as a workout trend, but it is still a very new idea. Lot's of people are interested in it, but it is still just an idea for most athletes-both recreational or professional.

A of people are asking where to start with barefoot fitness, what barefoot workouts are available, and what are the benefits of barefoot fitness.

Start with Yoga



Why? Yoga is slow enough to get the hang of it quickly even if you've never done it. Since it is done on a soft mat, you can do as much Yoga as you want without worrying about the bottoms of your feet not being conditioned yet. Also, Yoga is diverse enough that you won't fatigue the muscles made "lazy" from shoes.

In addition, Yoga is now widely available at most gyms and fitness centers, so you can take a class and consult your teacher for specifics. Yoga gets you in tune with being grounded in bare feet and making a conscious connection between your feet and the rest of your body when you exercise.

Add Short Barefoot Runs



Running may not be your thing, but short barefoot runs, we're talking fifty or a hundred yards, will help you start to awaken the lazy muscles and strengthen your feet and ankles. Walking around the house bareople need to know other options, like foot helps, but a conscious act of exercising does more to build the essential mind-body connection.

If you are into running, still keep your barefoot runs short while you condition your feet and ankles. The exception is if you do a lot of running in toe shoes.

This picture above comes from Runbare.com and the associated books by Michael Sandler, which are among other sorceresses we'll look at in the future.

Barefoot Cardio Programs


I never discourage jumping into a barefoot cardio class-there just aren't many available yet, so people need to know other options to get started.

There a re a few well-known studios scattered about the country these days, like Barefoot Fitness in Spearfish, SD,and  willPower and Grace in Denver, CO. Dr. Emily Splichal teaches classes in NYC and does different workshops in different areas. EFBA also hosts various workshops. If you're in Washington State, the well-known barefoot runner and yogini Barefoot Angie Bee teaches a numberof classes along with Tina Dubois at Natural Running.



We'll be revisiting this question in the coming days and weeks as we seek input from premier barefoot fitness instructor and continue to find more resources for you!


The author, Vincent Gerbino is a Certified YogaFit Yoga Teacher, ans AFAA-Certified Group Fitness Instructor and a willPower and Grace intern. He has been teaching Yoga for nine years and supporting barefoot runners' training for five.

Blessings!

Barefoot Living In Spring...Nuremberg....Happy Sunday everyone!

Happy Sunday!

View more from Deviant Art Burkhard 55

Blessings!

Barefoot And Powerful-the New Feminine Leader

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you wee this picture?


Many might make remarks about fetishes and other things. Almost Barefoot doesn't do fetish stuff, ever, and certainly, we ask folks who are into that to keep it to themselves. But we're not making a mission statement today.

This picture comes from the Goddess Collective, a group of positive, empowered, strong women who work to teach and support other women in developing their own sense of self, their own strength and wisdom within the realm of their feminine identities.

They teach women how to be positive leaders using the feminine perspective. This something Almost Barefoot does indeed support.

They used this picture as one of their Nine Principles Of Feminine Leadership, as principle number eight states:

"She [the successful feminine leader] Embraces Mystery"

She enthusiastically receives manifested gifts, in full embrace of her worthiness.

She Knows that good things will come your way and be willing to say Yes to them.

She Accepts that sometimes even with the best intentions that things go“ Wonky”.

She Holds curiosity about the emerging new.

She Holds the deep knowing that all experiences are an opportunity for growth. 

Here we deepen into the practice of Intuition, Growth Opportunities, and Celebrating the Unknown.

-Marta Maria Marraccini

But while we support feminism, the empowerment of women, and the teaching of today's girls that they are the future leaders, we simply want to say with this picture that is says a couple of key things:

First

 The fact that i it used by a women's leadership group in an add to teach women how to be feminine leaders, it shows that the barefoot woman is now symbol of power. Every time the image of the barefoot woman is used positively like this, we come closer to erasing the negative stereotype of the barefoot woman. 

Second

It is a positive example of what we've said before here, that the barefoot woman is an enduring symbol of goddess-like quality that intrigues everyone who sees such an image, and without any connection to a fetish.

Walk on,barefoot women, acknowledge your positive power and may we recognize it so that our entire world becomes a better place.

To learn more about feminine leader training:

click here

Women who seek feminine leadership training can learn more about the Goddess Collective's upcoming program in June by going to their website. Almost Barefoot supports your positive growth!

Blessings!

Barefoot in Sheffield-Revisiting barefooting in the UK

Photo by Fabio De Paola for the Guradian

We got an overwhelming number of readers the first time we posted about this woman, who lives her life barefoot in Sheffield, England.

Our barefoot celebrity's name is Bea Marshall and she's a mother of two children who also live an "almost-barefoot" lifestyle, to hear her tell it.

Bea was recently profiled in the British paper The Guardian back in February when Almost Barefoot found her.

Living barefoot means different things for different people.  She's a "well-heeled" example of living barefoot in an urban environment. Bea got her barefooting start when she developed pain while running. She took off her running shoes and the rest is history.

She also told her story to the BBC News , including how she was at her local police station to address a matter that had nothing to do with being barefoot and ended up getting reported to social services since she and her kids were barefoot at the time.

Bea in 2011, Article by Stephanie Barnard for BBC News

She also talks about being barred from night clubs for being barefoot, and says she'd be safer than intoxicated women in high heels.........

As far as her work is concerned, she's a professional woman in charge of her own life-she owns a web design business. In general, she's decided that the benefits of barefoot living outweigh the negative issues by far.

Blessings!

Going barefoot reduces stress

Going barefoot reduces stress, but how?

Those of us who live Almost Barefoot or always barefoot still like barefooting for the same reason-it feels good and makes your legs, ankles and feet stronger.

All kinds of physical health problems can be avoided by going barefoot each day. But what about stress reduction?

Dieter Breithecker, head of Germany's Federal Institute for Posture and Mobilization says barefooting reduces stress. he told several publications. he also said children shouldn't be made to sit still all the time.

"Putting the soles of your feet in contact with all the normal sensations helps to relieve internal tension and reduce stress. Shoes, on the other hand, prevent direct contact with the ground and so adversely affect the health of our feet, balance and posture,"  Dr. Dieter Breithecker, ergonomics expert

If we can't go barefoot all the time, a daily barefoot workout will do much to help.

Walking barefoot is an active version of reflexology, so is barefoot exercise even on a flat floor.

Reflexology is the activation of difference bodily energy centers by stimulating the respective contact point sin your feet, sort of like acupuncture.

Stacey Lei Krauss, founder of willPower and Grace barefoot fitness workout and co-owner of the Will Power Fit Studio in Denver, CO

Barefoot fitness teacher Stacey Lei Krauss points out that the pressure points of your feet each connect to one of your major organs and thus play a huge role in physical homeostasis. Krauss patented the willPower and Grace Fitness method, which she teaches at her studio in Denver, CO 

Go barefoot at home. Take a barefoot walk. Take a barefoot class. Reap the benefits.

Blessings!

http://jeremiahstanghini.com/tag/germany/

http://willpowerfit.com/

Barefoot In The Park-A little cold to do it today here!

Happy Sunday-looking forward to this but winter hangs on here in Denver. Maybe a short meditation walk today-it will make tomorrow a better work day!

Our pic comes from one of the many public sites that showcases the barefoot parks in Europe-they are a popular therapy for the working locals as well as tourists and are complete with foot washing stations!

Blessings!

Get Bent!...Barefoot!

Get Bent! Get Fit!    

Yogis do it barefoot!

Yoga is a great compliment to any exercise regimen, any spiritual practice, and of course, the perfect exercise for those who like to live barefoot!

Barefoot On The Metro

by Burkhard 55

Happy Thursday. Enjoy your commute!

Click for link

Blessings!

Ultimate Barefoot Living!

There is living barefoot and then there is living barefoot in whole different sense.

I'm really not sure why I've never written about this.....water skiing barefoot.  How awesome can that be? It's not a new idea, just one of the best.

America Barefoot Water Skiing Club 2014 article by Paul Adams

There's walking with no shoes-then there's water skiing- cruising over water at high speeds with NO SKIS!


"Banana" George Blair died last year-at age 98. he enjoyed water-skiing barefoot as late as age 92.
Rest in peace, George!

Blessings!

Podiatrist recommends going barefoot

Barefoot therapy still resides mostly in the alternative medical community.

We see adds for ever-more-sophisticated shoes and custom orthotics to "fix" our feet.

However, a popular medical doctor makes it a point to teach how barefooting builds foot strength and stronger legs as well.

Dr, Emily Splichal is also know as "Dr. Legs". In addition to her practice in NYC as a Podiatrist-a medical doctor who focuses on foot health-she teaches barefoot fitness classes and techniques.

Per PRLOG, picture may be used with corresponding press release which is referred to below

Her picture here is part of a corresponding press release on PRLOG.org in 2012 that explains her work in detail.

Dr. Splichal's popular programs include Catwalk Confidence.

Two key points Dr. Splichal makes:

• Most modern-day foot problems can be solved with foot-strengthening exercises that are done barefoot.
• A woman who wants to keep wearing stilettos can do so if she follows the right foot workout program. 

Her successful programs to help women maintain healthy feet and still enjoy wearing stilettos is the reason many women love her work-and I doubt their boyfriends or husbands are complaining about it!

Blessings!

For us who enjoy barefoot living, our lifestyle is about total freedom of mind and body expressed as freedom of choice.
 Let's remember those in Ukraine and Russia who are fighting for their freedom today, as they face the threat, shoes or no shoes.

Blessings!

Cure plantar fasciitis-Go Barefoot!

People continue to have plantar fasciitis because people keep trying to sure it by changing shoes.

Instead, get rid of the shoes. Walk barefoot a lot more often.

I have attended dozens of Michael Sandler's barefoot running lectures. A point he always made was how he used to have plantar fasciitis and spent hundreds of dollars each year on custom orthotics-all of which made his condition worse.  

Michael Sandler (left) with Jessica Lee-Sandler (right)

His nickname used to be "Mr. Plantar Fasciitis".  He trained me in barefoot running and cured my plantarfasciitis in theprocess.

That's how I know that everything in the latest post by Heidi Fiscus-(better known as Barefoot Heidi) on Barefoot and Paleo, is true.

This is an awesome article, so check it out!

Barefoot Heidi, Author of Barefoot and Paleo

Fix your feet-ditch your shoes. As soon as you get home from work, take your shoes off and walk around. You'll soon be glad you are doing it. 

Blessings!

Barefoot Flying-Do It!

Enjoy the Day-Be Posting Soon!

Jessica Lee-Sandler takes flight!

Learn more about Jessie-click here

Jessie lives her life almost entirely barefoot and when it comes to running, she's, well, rather extraordinary.

The early days of barefoot flying. Jessica smiles as she cruises in to finish the Veterans' Five K at Metro State University in Denver, 2009. Photo by Barefoot Scott Jones.

Blessings!

Bare feet required to work at London company-no kidding.

Try this company on for size................................

In addition to being a qualified architect/person who can properly serve and architectural firm,there's one more stipulation if you want to work at this company. 

Here, Bare feet are REQUIRED in the office.

Welcome to AL_A..that's Amanda Levete Architects for those who don't know.

This takes barefooting in Britain to a whole new level.     So...who wants to be an architect?

The barefoot boss, CEO Amanda Levete of Amanda Levete Architercts. Photo by Andy Hall for the Observer

The firm is not some hippie-ized anomaly.  Quite by contrast, they are cutting edge. Going barefoot, while certainly enjoyable for the employees, isn't about being excessively laid bac. Rather, it's about natuarlly stimulating people to be more creative. 

"Well, it keeps the carpet clean," says Levete drily. "Also it's a great leveller, and it's relaxing: you can put your feet on the sofas."

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg just  might want to pay a visit.

This quote was collected by the Guardian/Observer in 2011 by article writer Elizabeth Day

Blessings!

Barefoot Strolling-Happy Sunday!

Happy Sunday!

Check out the page and pics..click

From the Village Voice, circa 2011 by Elie of the Bowery Boggie

Barefoot and Powerful-A Walk With DeAnne Part 3

Discovering Strength through Life 

Barefoot and Powerful

-A Barefoot Walk with DeAnne        Part Three

Humbled and at the same time feeling very powerful, DeAnne stands barefoot in Chartres Cathedral in France after walking barefoot on the same paths as Mary Magdalene.on

Spiritual Leader DeAnne Wolfgram gives us some perspective. 

This publication is part of an ongoing series called Barefoot and Powerful, where we explore how being barefoot is empowering to women and we find it can be to all who are open to her approach.

"My first barefoot pilgrimage moment came in the crypt of Mary Magdalene in St. Maxim Basilica.  

I had some precious time alone beneath the church gazing upon her skull held in the golden reliquary and surrounded by two sarcophagi. As I sat on the steps of the crypt gazing at her, 

"I remembered [my friend] Melynnda’s advice and removed my sandals. 

"The cold stone awakened my senses and I felt awash in divine feminine devotion for this woman who had lived through so very much and yet carved such a path for others.

Through my very soles, I felt this soulful moment of reverence and awareness. Like the Christina Perri song “Thousand Years” sings, She ‘has died every day waiting for’ us. I had the realization that we are the women and men of right now living in this extraordinary time on earth. We are the ones we have waited for and Love is the absolute guiding force for us all. 

"Following my moment of communing with Mary Magdalene in her crypt, I quietly placed my shoes back on my feet.  Both in shoes and barefoot I would walk where her own steps had been along the Royal Road to her cavern cathedral in St. Baum, beside the Mediterranean Sea where she came ashore at Stes Maries-de-la-Mer and elsewhere. 

I was not necessarily a Magdalene devotee though I did and still do feel deep reverence. The awakening of Divine Feminine truth had pulled me there. What called me to Sacred France was an awareness of the renewal of the Divine Feminine and the truth of the Sacred Union of Beloved Love. Each day of walking in Magdalene’s footsteps across southern France was a further awakening to my own Divine Feminine essence and to deep stirrings of knowings that I am only now beginning to be able to articulate.

"Yes, the advice to walk barefoot when I could was important. It connected me to these ancient places in a very sensual, sacred personal way and grounded me in the present while simultaneously feeling a timeless connection experience as well.  

Despite my best intentions, the immersion in all these new potent places and the energy of the people in our remarkable Sacred France tour group were wondrously overwhelming.

The very next day I hiked to the top of the ancient Cathar ruins in the mountains of Montsegur in flip flops with walking sticks. The day was an illuminated journey as the sunlight cascaded down lighting our path. In the center of the ruined fortress,

"I removed my shoes and felt the energies of this timeless place devoted to The Way of Love.  

As my toes lifted the dirt and tickled the grass, I watched members of our travel family filled with the peaceful loving presence of this place and we marveled at its mysteries.  

"Strangely, I did not feel the heaviness of the hundreds of lives that where lost as the Cathar people had walked to their deaths in the fires at the base of this very mountain in 1244 for refusing to recant their faith. What I did feel through my heart and the soles of my feet was a sense of return and renewal. Many were gathered that felt a similar ancient stirring. It was the call to walk the path of life in Love.

From that day at Montsegur on and for the next two weeks as I walked through Europe, I had a wrapped ankle. I removed the wrapping to walk completely barefoot on the magnificent ancient labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral, home of sacred mystery schools and a depth of beautiful and sometimes controversial history.

"Invoking prayer and an open heart, I entered the labyrinth barefoot and trusting. I knew I would be guided just as I had been in extraordinary ways throughout this journey. The labyrinth is truly a metaphor for our walk of life with all its circuitous turns that weave us in wondrous ways.  This next passage is one that I wrote and shared on the first anniversary of my sacred walk."

"IT'S ALL SACRED......" Join us tomorrow to read what DeAnne had to say about this.....

Blessings!

Barefoot and Powerful-Barefoot Walk in France with DeAnne

Discovering Strength through Life 

Barefoot and Powerful

-A Barefoot Walk with DeAnne        Part Two

Humbled and at the same time feeling very powerful, DeAnne stands barefoot in Chartres Cathedral in France after walking barefoot on the same paths as Mary Magdalene.

Spiritual Leader DeAnne Wolfgram gives us some perspective. 

This publication is part of an ongoing series called Barefoot and Powerful, where we explore how being barefoot is empowering to women.

AB: 

You took a three-week spiritual journey in Europe. In your Facebook posts, you spoke of moments of realization-especially when you stood barefoot in the ancient Chartres Cathedral in France. 

Tell us why you decided to go barefoot at those moments and how it tied to your spiritual connections that you were making.

DeAnne:
"Before I even departed for what I realized would be a very life-changing journey, I recognized that I had already experienced many momentous synchronistic events and strong energies leading up it.  There was a timeless depth and guidance happening that I couldn’t begin to understand yet knew to trust.  It certainly had the stirrings of soul agreements and ancient promises.  

"I felt a call, and I said, “Yes.” It would be, for me, a powerful, personal Divine Feminine heroine’s journey though I came to it with a great open, curious innocence and playful adventurous essence."

 "I realize that sharing the stories of what led up to this sacred travel experience would be the beginning of a biographical spiritual adventure book in and of itself. (I may well write that in time.) Given what I recognized before I even left home and knowing all the energy I was feeling, I knew to be very aware and open to guidance. This inner guidance continually steered my steps and my choices before and during what became my Divine Feminine journey through Europe.

One [my] friends, MelynndaButton, our Edgy Mystic at the Sacred Circle Retreats forum, had been intuitively guided to send me some beautiful Magdalene and Jesus posts and other messages before I set out...she lovingly encouraged me to walk barefoot as often as possible. 

"I literally and physically walk[ed] in the steps of Mary Magdalene in sacred southern France."

Thank you, Barefoot DeAnne!

Blessings!